Engraving plugin - mach 3 - not enough laser power

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Engraving plugin - mach 3 - not enough laser power

Postby gene » Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:06 pm

So I'm using mach3 and trying to get the laser engraving plugin working (most recent tweaks version)
The laser is coming on, but it's jut not creating enough power to send a beam out to do anything. Obviously not enough power being sent with Pot at 100%
Any ideas where my issues could be? I've tried switching to PWM control but that doesn't seem to do anything. I've got the front switch on control panel in the closed (Active) position but it still gets adjusted with pots control and internal mach3 spind speed settings don't seem to do anything with it.

I've been reading as much as I can find on it but I'm not sure what it means to set the plugin up to 4000 as a sweetspot. Does that indicated steps per inch? if so I'm running the barts 3x laser control board, 16x microstepping and only getting 500 steps per inch so I'm kind of confused
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Re: Engraving plugin - mach 3 - not enough laser power

Postby bdring » Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:30 pm

The Mach3 plugin outputs a fixed pulse per step. Power therefore has nothing to do with speed. You going to get the same pulse of power at each step. Slowing down will not increase the power. The only way to get more power is for each step to cover less distance. I have found that increasing the resolution to at least 4000 steps/inch is where the plugin will start to engrave decently on wood. That would require 0.9deg motors on the 2.x laser with Pololu drivers. you could get some Keling style and go way about that res.

Here is cut from my belt calc page

http://www.buildlog.net/cnc_laser/belt_calcs.htm

4000dpi.JPG
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Re: Engraving plugin - mach 3 - not enough laser power

Postby steppenshoe » Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:05 pm

Is there a way to get that to work with fire fox?
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Re: Engraving plugin - mach 3 - not enough laser power

Postby twehr » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:51 am

steppenshoe wrote:Is there a way to get that to work with fire fox?


Download the IE Tab addon. That lets you run any page in IE within the Firefox framework.
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Re: Engraving plugin - mach 3 - not enough laser power

Postby steppenshoe » Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:30 pm

Already have it and can,t get it to work. I'll take a look deeper into the settings.

NOTE*

I got t workin I didn't know I had to manually put in the web site under site filter.
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